So I took the day off and we drove less than a couple of hours north to one of those cities with two names (McCaysville/GA and Coppertown/TN) as the state border runs right in the middle of it... and had a great time.

I decided not to take any pictures, don't have a long lens (300mm is my longest, not long enough for this), and even if I had, I didn't have the proper filter for it... so I went to just enjoy it.

But see, my son has the little point and shoot with a somewhat long zoom that I gave him last Christmas and he took it with him, and he was having a hard time taking pictures with it... so I helped him out. Of course, they were taken with his cameras, so they're *his* pictures ;)

Not going to win any awards but I was there. My only regret is that I didn't get to buy the "I WAS MOONED!!" t-shirt they had for sale at the city park event, before they ran out.

Through the eclipse "glasses" which seemed like it was made on purpose for the little camera's front element!

This required no filter. During the total phase of the eclipse (1m36s where we were) you can look at the sun directly. Everything is dark. The ducks and geese in the river area where we were, all went to the side of the river, and bundled up and went to sleep. So this is the "Corona" shot.

Now I can say I've seen a total eclipse in my lifetime. On the way there we prayed for clear skies (it was supposed to be a bit cloudy) and it was perfectly clear, thank God. We left minutes after it ended, and during the drive home everything became overcast.

That is amazing! I need a regular camera. the phone is fine, but all of the distant photos look horrible, tiny out of scale..

Much Jelly!

We sat out in the drive way and watched through glasses we got at the planetarium on our trip a few weeks ago. I should have cooked out.. the weather was nice since 84% of the sun was blocked from here

MetroSonus wrote:That is amazing! I need a regular camera. the phone is fine, but all of the distant photos look horrible, tiny out of scale..

Much Jelly!

We sat out in the drive way and watched through glasses we got at the planetarium on our trip a few weeks ago. I should have cooked out.. the weather was nice since 84% of the sun was blocked from here

What’s the most famous painting of an eclipse? (The Moona Lisa!)What did the sun bring to the solar eclipse party? (A light snack!)How does the man in the moon cut his hair? (Eclipse it!)What did the sun say when it reappeared after an eclipse? (Pleased to heat you again!)What kind of underwear should you wear during an eclipse? (Fruit of the Moon!)How do you organize a solar eclipse party? (You planet!)Why didn’t the sun go to college? (It already had a million degrees!)Have you heard about the restaurant on the moon? (Great food, but no atmosphere!)Why did the teacher bring solar eclipse glasses to school? (She had bright students!)

I went to southern Illinois for it. I have a niece that lives in the boons about twenty miles east of Carbondale. Fantastic private experience, would view again!

CR, ur happysnaps are just as good as the ones I took with my DSLR. I used a 300mm lens with a 2X doubler, so multiply that times APS-C = 900mm. I also sent off for a sheet of The Correct Filmy Filter Stuff from a Reputable Photo-Astronomy Place. For the cam I cut a slice that fit my Cokin gel holder, and also cut out two circles which I bunged onto the front of my binocs. Both worked very well.

I got a reasonably good raw HD video of the whole event, but the best part of the movie is the audio of everyone's reactions. And some chicken noises. They didn't like it.

I just got back home from the "eclipse trip". We have relatives on Kentucky Lake (Land Between the Lakes area, KY) so we had a great private vantage point of the eclipse. After that, we battled through traffic and crowds to see Mammoth Cave, because it's close enough so why not? (Traffic, that's "why not". But it was neat to see anyways despite being super-busy.)

I also understand that we have some relatives up in the totality path seven years from now (in Vincennes Indiana) so we'll probably be doing another private gathering-of-the-relatives then. It'll probably be a shorter trip, because there's not a whole lot of notable things in Indiana.

Total eclipses definitely are much more impressive than partial ones, in my opinion. Pictures don't really do it justice. The sun looks pretty wild during totality. Plus you get that weird sunset-but-not-sunset lighting, and the animals (crickets, birds, etc.) getting confused.

From the viewfinder it looks like some of the pictures I took came out good, but I'll have to see. I used a Canon EF 100-400mm on max (with APS-C so about 650mm equivalent).